Legal & General Group Plc Cuts Stock Position in Eaton Co. plc (NYSE:ETN)

Legal & General Group Plc trimmed its position in shares of Eaton Co. plc (NYSE:ETN) by 20.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,420,304 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 605,223 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Eaton were worth $803,226,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Eaton by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 3,101 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,029,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Westmount Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Eaton by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Westmount Partners LLC now owns 985 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $327,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC grew its stake in Eaton by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC now owns 896 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $297,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Lantz Financial LLC increased its position in Eaton by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 659 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $219,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH raised its stake in Eaton by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH now owns 1,639 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $544,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ETN. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Eaton from $382.00 to $326.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Eaton from $335.00 to $305.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Melius downgraded shares of Eaton from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $373.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. KeyCorp raised Eaton from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $340.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Eaton from $440.00 to $410.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $356.68.

Eaton Stock Down 5.6 %

Eaton stock opened at $246.36 on Monday. Eaton Co. plc has a 12 month low of $222.60 and a 12 month high of $379.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $96.52 billion, a PE ratio of 25.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.50 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $296.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $330.24.

Eaton (NYSE:ETN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.82 by $0.01. Eaton had a net margin of 15.25% and a return on equity of 22.62%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.55 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Eaton Co. plc will post 12.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eaton Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $1.04 dividend. This represents a $4.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. This is a boost from Eaton’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.94. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Eaton’s payout ratio is presently 43.79%.

About Eaton

Eaton Corporation plc operates as a power management company worldwide. The company’s Electrical Americas and Electrical Global segment provides electrical components, industrial components, power distribution and assemblies, residential products, single and three phase power quality and connectivity products, wiring devices, circuit protection products, utility power distribution products, power reliability equipment, and services, as well as hazardous duty electrical equipment, emergency lighting, fire detection, explosion-proof instrumentation, and structural support systems.